UNCTAD's Work Programme on International Investment Agreements (IIAs) actively assists policymakers, government officials and other IIA stakeholders to formulate international investment rules that effectively foster sustainable development and inclusive growth.

Main goals:

Enhance the sustainable development dimension of international investment agreements (IIAs)

Provide comprehensive analysis on key issues arising from the complexity of the international investment regime

Develop a wide range of tools to support the formulation of more balanced international investment policies

The three pillars of activities:

Research and policy analysis - monitoring trends, identifying key emerging issues and providing cutting-edge knowledge on IIAs from a sustainable development perspective

Technical assistance - delivering trainings, seminars and workshops and offering ad-hoc advice to strengthen the capacity of beneficiaries in handling the complexities of the IIA regime

Intergovernmental consensus-building - exchanging and sharing best practices and experience with the view to fostering global investment governance

News

There is a pressing need for systematic reform of the international investment agreements (IIAs) regime to bring it in line with today's sustainable development imperative. Today the question is not whether or not to reform, but about the what, how and extent of such reform.

States' recent steps to reform the international investment regime, aligning it with today's sustainable development imperative, were at the centre of discussion at a Conference, co-organized by UNCTAD and CCSI, in New York on 10-11 November 2015.

​On 16 September, more than a 100 policymakers from government, private sector and international and civil society organizations discussed UNCTAD’s "Roadmap for Reform of the International Investment Regime".

​In 2014, countries concluded one international investment agreement every other week. Investors continue to use investor-State dispute settlement, but the number of new cases does not reach the record high of previous years.

​More than 50 high-level representatives from governments, the private sector and civil society convened in Geneva on 16 October to address the challenges arising from international investment agreements (IIAs) and consider ways to reform the international investment policy regime at a United Nations meeting held during UNCTAD's World Investment Forum at the Palais des Nations.